Terminal Empathy
by MaskedAndDangerous
Summary: Metroid. The ancient Chozodian word for the Ultimate Warrior. When a new threat to the galaxy appears, Samus Aran must once again prove herself worthy of that title. But the Zebes incident has taken it's toll, and the guilt of genocide weighs Samus down. Can she still be the Hunter? Or will her prey turn the tables on the ultimate warrior?
1. Chapter I

**Chapter I**

The Galaxy is a vast place. The realm of the Galactic Federation alone covers thousands of stars, holding millions of planets, satellites, and other life bearing phenomena. No one knows precisely how many forms of life live out there, but they were all similar. Bipedal creatures, limited in life but busy in nature, constantly building. The children of stars, clouds of synapses formed in gaseous radiation, drifting through the cosmos. Planetoids of crystal, pondering it's own existence as it's body morphs over eons. Life was infinite in its manifestations, each one unique even as it shared the fundamental title of "Alive".

And yet, despite Life's plentiful nature, there still exists anomalies. Things which, even in the wide swept arms of the Galaxy, were never supposed to exist. Meeting points in space and time, intersecting with places perpendicular to them dimensionally, and sometimes dragging things through. A hiccup in the universe, like a computer drive holding the remnant of deleted files within a buffer. The odds of a living being surviving such a transfer were so small that the latest model of the Federation's cyber brains could not even calculate the number of zeroes required.

Within it's casing, the anomaly opened it's eye. It had been beaten, broken, ripped from space/time in the most brutal way possible. And yet it still clung to life to life with the furious grip only one of it's kind held.

The anomaly raged, declaring new oaths of vengeance that echoed within it's very DNA. It did so for days, it's unintelligible screams broadcasted for all the universe to hear.

About a month later, the merchant vessel _Princess of Nightfall_ diverted from their supply run to find the source of interference to their navigation system. The ship was never seen nor heard from again, all hands were lost, and it's disappearance was blamed on Space Pirates by the corporate owners.

**-/-**

Sometimes, Samus Aran would shut down all non-essential systems besides her radio, close her eyes, and listen the universe. The steady beeps of the comm buoys transferring yottabytes of data between planets, the heartbeat of the universe at work. The chittering of encrypted data between starships. All the small little processes that were always there, but never noticed. It helped to keep perspective on exactly how large the galaxy was. On how small her own grief was in comparison.

It had been two months and Samus still wasn't ready to touch the second Zebes incident. A lot of old wounds had been opened, and she had taken some new hits along the way. Her childhood home was gone, destroyed in a final act of spite against her, and worst of all, Mother Brain's death had given the bounty hunter no closure, just another ache. So much death and destruction, caused by an insane copy of a corrupted Aurora class supercomputer. The baby...

Samus shook her head. She had promised herself she wouldn't go down that particular road. Emotions like that were not conductive to her job. Tears hardly went with the image of the unstoppable god of death that had formed around her, and in the bounty hunting world reputation was everything. It would only slow her down, make her sloppy, and potentially get her killed. What she needed was work, something to throw herself into.

As if on cue, a green light on the console in front of her blinked on, and her time to brood was over. Samus clicked the display, which unfolded to a familiar face. She let a small smile come to the corner of her mouth. It had been years, but she would never mistake this man for anyone else. "Sir."

"Samus." Adam Malkovich said, his voice matching his protege's in it's brevity. The two stared at each other for a moment. Samus's former commander looked just as tired as Samus felt. "I need your help."

It took a lot for Samus to hide her shock. "Sir?" If the Commander was asking for help, then that meant things were very bad. He'd only done it once in the whole time she had served under him in the Federation Marines, years ago. Determination filled the bounty hunter's eyes. She would not let him down. "What's the situation?"

The screen lit up with information. "Six days ago, we lost contact with Oulio III, a class VIII planet at the border of Federal Space. The Federation assumed it was solar flares, and sent a squad of technicians to assist in repairs. They reported that the planet was in flames, shortly before losing contact." His face was unreadable, but Samus could see through that facade.

Taking in the data, Samus slowly nodded. "You want me to investigate." It wouldn't be the first time she had been through the aftermath of an attack. Space Pirates had a nasty habit of booby trapping planets whatever mutants they forgot to pack back up when they were done with pillaging and burning everything. Learning to always keep an eye open when you were on the ground was an essential skill in her trade.

"Officially, Oulio has been classified a Space Pirate attack. But the data doesn't add up. The Space Pirates are still reeling from the previous incident. Unless our data is way off, they don't have the manpower to raid a planet of that size, especially without someone getting a distress signal off. And they definitely wouldn't stick around in Federation Space for that long." Adam met her eyes. "I want you to find out what the hell we're up against. The Federation can't take another Phaaze incident on our hands. Get in, search the colony, try to find out what caused the attack, and then get out of there."

Samus could see a smile tease her mentor's face for less than a second. "Any objections, lady?" Their old banter, a mark of respect that only he could give without sounding sarcastic. An indication that their bond was still there.

The bounty hunter saluted. "No sir." Without another word, Samus ended the communications. Looking at the ceiling, she spared one more moment to fill herself with every negative thought she had harbored. Then she breathed them out, releasing herself from them as best she could. In the place of Samus Aran, grieving mercenary, sat Samus Aran, ultimate warrior of the Chozo. It was time to work.

The gunship hummed as it's engines powered up. Spinning on it's axis, it launched towards it's destination. The Hunter was on her way.


	2. Chapter II

**CHAPTER II**

Oulio III was still burning.

Not too long ago, the planet had been home to a modest colony, a million souls of races from across the universe. A massive clear dome had protected the city from deadly radiation from the planet's red sun. It had been compared to living in a massive snow globe. The place had been beautiful.

No longer. The cityscape was smoldering, as the impossibly hot fire which had incinerated much of the colony gradually gave way to simple flame. The dome was shattered in numerous places, buildings crushed below where it broke. If it weren't for the signs of gunfire everywhere, one could assume that what had happened had been a natural disaster.

The gunship lowered itself slowly into the once bustling city, scanning everywhere as it did so. Despite the interference from the ash and dust, the highly modified transport could still detect several hot spots, area which still had some systems still activated. With a little luck, Samus would be able to find some clues to what happened. Perhaps there was a still active surveillance system, or something else of that nature. One ping in particular stood out.

"That'll work." the hunter stated to herself, as she finished tying her hair into a tight bun. It was time to get to work.

Samus felt electricity down her spine as she willed her power suit into existence. Blue gave way to orange, and she felt the power the suit gave her rushing through her. The last thing to appear was her helmet, tinting the world in blue. For some, there would be sensory overload, but to the bounty hunter, this was her normal. Being without her suit was like being blind, and now once again she could see. Without pause, the bounty hunter exited her ship.

The air was so thick with ash that the bounty hunter felt that magma had been easier to trudge through. As Samus made her way through the wrecked town, she saw a lot of bodies. Some were charred skeletons, left where they fell like refuse. Others, merely shadows on the walls, attacked with such heat that they atomized, their ashes forever scarring whatever happened to be adjacent. Samus muttered prayers for the dead under her breath as she passed. No one deserved to die in such a gruesome manner.

Sensing her presence, the sole living natives to Oulio III appeared. The scaly flying scavengers rose from their meals, circling the curious new presence. Samus scanned one quickly, making a brief note of the creatures' psychology, before shooting one with a plasma blast. The rest flew away as the unfortunate member of their group fell to the ground, a hole where its face was. She was not bothered by the creatures again.

Finally, after advancing over a maze of rubble and debris, the bounty hunter reached her destination. The building was sealed, but a locked door wouldn't be enough to keep out Samus. She fired a single missile, blowing the already weakened door from it's mounting before stepping through.

The building was crumbling, but with a little creative navigation, Samus was able to make her way to her destination. Her visor marked a waypoint just ahead, and it took only a moment for her to navigate past an obstruction in her path, using her beam cannon to carve through the beaten materials. Jumping down through a hole in the floor, the bounty hunter made her way into the fishery.

No fish were left, the massive tanks that had once held the food supply of half the colony shattered along with everything else in the building. Samus trudged through ankle high water and guts as she searched through the room. And there was the cause. A Galactic Federation escape pod, capable of seating three and surviving re-entry under extreme circumstances. The silver capsule's nose had crumpled from impact, but the cabin was undamaged. And it was open.

Samus looked inside, scan visor active. One corpse. Scientific personnel, no hardsuit. Death was instantaneous. His neck snapped on impact when the inertial dampeners failed. Somebody had attempted to apply first aid, before giving up, taking an emergency pistol and a handful of other supplies, and exiting south. She'd check that out later. For now, there was something else to grab.

Without a moments hesitation, the bounty hunter reached inside the tomb-like interior of the escape pod, grabbing the prominent crystal embedded in the center console. The "black box", the final log of the GF Cimmerian. All the data that could be saved before launched. Finally, she could get some answers.

"Play." Samus said quietly. The crystal interfaced with her suit.

**-/- **

**_Log start_**

_Cimmerian Escape Pod 3 Black Box _

_Audio only, Bridge _

_"Prism drive disengaged." _

_"Finally. I don't think my stomach could take much more of that. If humans were meant to go faster then li-" _

_"Shut up, Arthur. You're not paid to whine." _

_"Gettin' nothing but static from the colony, captain." _

_"That can't be right. 417, see if you can clean up the signal." _

_"_We can find no pattern to the static discharges_." _

_"Damn. Keep on it. When can we make visual contact." _

_"Visual contact starting now sir." _

_"Mother of God. AURORA, emergency dis-" _

_"_Virus detected. Severing Network to avoi-_" _

_"CONTACT!" _

_"All hands. Get to the esca-" _

_"Where did it co-" _

_"It doesn't matter!" _

_"_rrup**-corru****p-corr****up****De-de-d**e-de-tected. De_**leting fi-**_"

_"Where did my shields go?" _

_BOOM _

_"CAPTAIN!" _

_"_Asset De-de_**-de-denial Syst**em _Ac-ac_-**ac- Authorization Accepted.**" _

_"Shit!" _

_"**Shifting control to-**" _

_"Aurora override Dark Woods activate! 2-2-1-1-4! Fry the bitch!" _

_"**Inv-In-I**_-I am sorry._" _

_Contact lost with Cimmerian _

**_Log end _**

**-/-**

It wasn't good news. Even if the ship wasn't a battleship, the fact that it had been dispatched with such efficiency meant that whoever this enemy was, they possessed advance technology, possibly on par with the ancient Chozo. The enemy had hacked a Gamma class AURORA unit as fast as she could from her suit, and without being near it.

Samus uploaded the data to her ship. She could analyse it more when she was out of hostile territory. In the mean time, there was still one person unaccounted for. The survivor of the crash. Where had he wandered off to, and why leave the crash site? Why leave a trove of supplies, only taking what he could carry?

"Because he was pursued." Samus muttered to herself. That would explain it. The escape pod, hadn't been defective, it had been shot down and the survivor obviously didn't want to get caught. She would have to trace his steps from here.

The next few rooms told a story. Scoring on the walls as the unknown enemy fired at the lone survivor of the GF Cimmerion. He retreated quickly, down a long hallway. She recognized the impact of a misaimed emergency pistol shot. Or was it? Further inspection showed that the neutrino weapon had hit a security panel. With luck, such a shot would short out anything connected to that panel, including doors. Which would explain why the door to the next room had been blasted open.

Samus let herself grin. "You're very clever, whoever you are." This guy had a will to survive. Despite being outgunned, he had managed to lead his pursuer (she was sure now that there was only one) on a game of cat and mouse. The scanning visor gave Samus the full story. Every time he seemed cornered, the survivor would pull another trick to escape. But as valorous as the effort was, as clever as he had been, it was not enough.

The bounty hunter could tell that he had made his last stand here, in cold storage. The massive door had a medium sized hole carved in it with a plasma cutter, before a makeshift barricade of storage crates had been blown apart. He had taken cover behind a cabinet of frozen fish, resulting in boiled fish guts being thrown everywhere. He had scrambled around the corner, dropping his gun in the process and...

The corpse was missing a leg. It had been blown off, right above the knee. He had collapsed at the base of some device which Samus didn't recognize, dying from shock even as he tightly grasped what appeared to be a jury rigged freeze gun. His once silver survival suit was covered in filth and dried blood. She cleared off his shoulder, reading the insignia. "Specialist Arthur MacCready, Chief Engineer, GF Cimmerian." Not even combat personnel, and yet he had survived for so long. Samus gave a small salute to the man.

As a matter of course, this was when hell broke loose.

"**_TERRRR-TIARY POWER SOURCE DE-TECTED!_**"

Samus spun around, her weapon trained. What she had assumed to be a console of some sort had come alive, despite the heavy frost restricting its movement. Even as she looked on, it began to glow red as the metal... thing started to heat up, cracking the ice around it. In a flash, she knew what had happened. MacCready had lured it here, and sacrificed his own life in order to kill it.

He had failed, but now it was up to her to finish the job.


	3. Chapter III

**Chapter III**

Adam Malkovich was not an easy man to shake. An old soldier to the core, Malkovich had fought from one end of the Galaxy to the other, defending the Federation from the many threats to it's borders. And yet as he listened to his protege's report, he found a chill in his heart. This wasn't another rising of the Space Pirates, or the Kriken finally making a push. This was a whole new threat, an unknown enemy which had given the greatest warrior in the galaxy pause. It was all but one of his nightmares as a military commander come to life.

Still, it was his job to remain unflappable in any situation. "Continue." he calmly stated to the view screen, fighting down his the shiver in his guts with iron will. He needed every bit of information possible, and Samus was the only one who could give him it. He would just have to roll with the punches until then.

**-/-**

_Samus rolled out of the way of some sort of beam as her suit went into overdrive. This was combat, something she had been trained for since her rebirth. Something didn't have to look dangerous to kill you, it only needed the firepower, something this thing had plenty of._

_"**EX-TERMIN-ATE!**" It seemed this thing was chatty. It shouted even as it fired it's weapon repeatedly at Samus, throwing away beams like they were candy. Only Samus's speed kept her ahead of the trashcan's arc of fire. "**YOU-SHALL-BE-RE-DUCED-TO-COMPO-NENT-ATOMS!**" A boaster too._

_"Good luck with that, buddy." Samus thought as she dodged underneath a volley of ion fire. Of course, the bounty hunter was firing back. Super heated plasma dissipated against the creature's shields, briefly becoming visible as it coiled around the creature. Her standard beam seemed ineffective against whatever this thing was packing. The shield was also messing with her scan visor, blocking any attempt to hack into it's system._

_This strategy was not working. Samus could practically feel the creature analyzing her even as she analyzed it. She estimated she had ten seconds before the creature could compensate for her speed from current observation. It was time to change the game._

_Without warning, Samus switched to missiles. She fired three of the projectiles directly at the creature, the force of the impact sending it reeling. When it slammed into the wall, it seemed the creature had finally stopped... only to begin firing again. "**EX-TERMIN-ATE!**" the mechanical voice cried, filled with rage._

_Samus aimed a little to the right, and fired._

**-/-**

Samus looked a little the right of the viewscreen as she clutched her side. She had not been as careful as she could have been, and a few of the shots had hit their target. Normally that would have been a problem, but the hits ate through her shield the way very few things could.

Or was it her? Had she lost what she was when she had left Zebes for the final time? She had shattered the Space Pirates so thoroughly that they may never recover. She had slew the killer of both of her families, Ridley, that black dragon who had survived so much. And yet the revenge had been ash to her mouth. Samus had failed her mission. She had committed genocide, and her one chance of redeeming herself from the fact had died to save her.

Samus shook the thoughts from her head. There wasn't time to dwell on her pain, not with a threat such as this right at their front door. Looking back at Adam, Samus returned to the task at hand. She highlighted the relevant data from her suit's sensors as she continued her report. "As I was saying, it displayed vulnerabilities to extreme cold..."

**-/-**

_A freezing stream covered the creature as the tank vented it's contents. The immense flow of frozen materials overwhelmed even the creature's shield, as frost began to compromise it's surface. Samus's eyes flashed from behind her helmet, as her guess had payed off. Even it's rate of fire began to slow down as near absolute zero temperatures coated it's body._

_MacCready had lured it here for a reason. Somehow, he had intuited that the monster was vulnerable to extreme temperature, and had brought it here to kill it. Unfortunately, he had only worked out the first step before he died. Immobile did not mean dead, you had to finish the job with high explosives before they thawed out._

_Samus began step two, firing a barrage of missiles at the monster. Weakened by the cold, the shots began penetrating, it's casing beginning to crack. Meanwhile, her scan visor began working, giving Samus partial schematics of the creature. The trashcan surface was merely a suit for a controlling intelligence within. Armor, much like her own in many ways. But she needed more. Her scanner touched the computer systems..._

_Something happened which had never happened before. The system attempted to back-hack her, and even managed to get a foothold. Probes, just as powerful as her own Chozodian data crackers, began infiltrating her system. Immediately, the suit went into autistic mode, isolating the infected systems like a circuit breaker in a lightning storm. The HUD of Samus's visor went dark as it began to reboot._

_Samus winced in pain as several ion rounds slammed into her shields, but kept firing. All the while, the creature ranted at her. "**EX-TERMIN-ATE! EX-TERMIN-ATE!**" it screamed, it's rage increasing as it's casing became more and more damaged. The gun stick finally gave, blown off by the rapid fire explosions. The unknown device opposite it was soon to follow. Finally, the front of the casing simply disintegrated._

_Samus let up on her barrage, as she looked upon the tentacles mass of flesh in the pilots chair of that miniature tank. She could hear it's wheezing for breath in the cold air, struggling to hold onto life with furious anger. It's eye glared at her with a malice that she recognized. Rage, the type that filled your whole being. The same rage which had filled the bounty Hunter during her private war against the Space Pirates. The same rage that had gripped her in the depths of Tourian, as she watched the creature that had once been her teacher as a child murder the baby Metroid in front of her. It was chilling, to be on the receiving end of such a gaze._

_"**THE-DA-LEKS-SHALL-ANN-HI-LATE-YOU! INFER-IOR-WRETCH! THE-FIRST-SHALL-BURN-E-VER-Y-MICRON-OF-E-VER-Y-PLA-NET!**" it raved, even as it was dying. It required dedication to scream out propaganda when the simple act of breathing could be fatal from the extremity of temperature._

_"At least I know what to call them." Samus thought. The reference to the "First" didn't sound good either, this thing was not alone. It wasn't even a leader. She needed to get this data to Adam._

_"**ALL-WILLBE-REMADE-IN-THE-IM-AGE-OF-PER-FECTION! THE-DA-LEK-EM-PIRE-HAS-RISEN-ONCE-MORE!**" Definitely not good. Her (admittedly currently limited) database made no references to any Dalek Empire, but anything which could produce this fanatic was something that was definitely a threat to the Federation._

_Time slowed as a realization hit Samus. "Wait! Fanatic..." she thought. Her eyes widened. This speech was just buying for time. Her newly reactivated scan visor confirmed. Massive heat build up, a self destruct device. Wasting no time, Samus fired a missile at the Dalek and turned to run._

_"**EX-!**" which was all the monster got out before becoming paste courtesy of Chozodian firepower. However tough it's mechanical armor was, the creature within was vulnerable and squishy. Now for the hard part._

_She had slowed down the trigger, not stopped it. But fortunately, if there was one thing Samus was good at, it was escaping exploding complexes. Weaving through the maze, the Hunter made her way to the exit, jumping over obstacles and charging through walls on her way. The building was about to be gone anyway, and the debris might dampen some of the detonation's bite. Finally, the light of her gunship hovering just outside the door was visible._

_This could be close._

**-/-**

"How are the repairs coming on my ship?" Samus asked the federation engineer as she walked out of the conference room. Malkovich had left to report her findings to the Federation Military Counsel, leaving her to her own devices. In the aftermath of the "Dalek"'s power core detonating, she had limped her gunship to a Federation satellite for repairs. They were doing the best they could for an isolated station, but...

The detonation had been unusually potent. Her shields had been blown out stopping the worst of it, and in general the ship looked beaten to hell. One of it's thrusters was simply gone, another heavily damaged. Portions of the weapon systems were heavily damaged, and it was missing chunks of it's aft.

Samus sighed in frustration. The way she went through these things was troubling at times. It cut into a large portion of her credits to fix them up, and the modifications were not cheap either. Chozo technology was difficult to replicate at the best of times, and these certainly were not.

After several minutes of chipping in to the work load, a technician ran up to Samus. "An urgent message for you." he chattered, his body language filled with fear.

"Another attack?" Samus asked. The gunship wouldn't be ready until the end of the day, and she was not looking forward to a melee with more of those things.

The technician shook his head. "It's... It's a Space Pirate vessel. Asking for the Hunter, ma'am. That's you, right?"

Samus, for once in her life, let her shock show on her face.


End file.
